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BSA factory ledgers and the Birmingham Blitz

There is a common misconception that some of the BSA factory ledgers were damaged during the Birmingham Blitz. This theory is even confirmed by official BSA documents. A couple of years ago John O'Brien sent me a copy of a letter (dated 9th December 1971) from the service department of the BSA factory. The letter was sent to an M20 owner in the USA, and this is a quote from this letter:

“From the serial number WM20 97102 which you quote, we would imagine that the machine would be produced around 1943. Unfortunately, it is not possible for us to be more positive, as so many of our records were destroyed by enemy action during the war.”

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Oops, the BSA ledgers that survived continue up to approximately WM20.70000 (late 1942). I thought that the Blitz happened much earlier…? Time to do some research!

First of all here’s a detail from the Birmingham bomb census map (showing all the bombs that fell on B’ham during WW2). Black dots are High Explosive bombs, red dots are incendiary bombs, crosses are unexploded bombs. Looks as if the factory was hit by 8 bombs, one of these being a UXB that fell in the canal. Two (one HE, one incendiary) bombs fell on the entrance of the New Factory (left hand side of the illustration), one HE halfway Armory Road, one incendiary and one HE on the “Small Arms Factory” (is this where they made the guns I wonder?), and one incendiary and one HE at the back of the old Victorian factory (right hand side of the illustration).

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I used this map as an overlay on Google Earth, where you can also see aerial pictures from 1945 when you go through the timeline:

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This is the same area today:

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And this is the war time photograph with the bomb dots transferred from the bomb census map:

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Transferred to another (post war) photograph:

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Looks as if the black and red circles at the bottom of the picture above can also be seen in the painting below:

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Re: BSA factory ledgers and the Birmingham Blitz

But this is a document that BSA published shortly after the war:

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Once again, these were the bombs that fell on the BSA factory according to the "official" bomb census map…

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… but according to the post war BSA document, it looked like this:
(I'm just a bit unsure about which bombs were HE and which were incendiary bombs)

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Interesting to see that according to the BSA document the "new factory building" was bombed in the opposite corner of what can be seen in the “official” map. We can also see that the factory was hit during three raids within three months: August 26th 1940, November 19th 1940 and November 22nd 1940.

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Re: BSA factory ledgers and the Birmingham Blitz

Thanks to Google I also found some information on these bombings:

On https://www.bsatrust.org I found the following quote: /i]"Inevitably, the Small Heath BSA works was marked on Luftwaffe maps of the area as one of their main targets. In 1940 the factory was bombed 3 times in 3 months, killing 53 people, injuring 89 injured, and destroying more than 4 acres of the factory."[/i]

On https://thebirminghampress.com/2010/11/53-killed-at-bsa-works-19th-november-1940/ I found this: "On the night of the 19th November 1940 Birmingham suffered one of its worst air raids of the blitz when a German bomber dropped two bombs on the Armoury Road site of the Birmingham Small Arms factory at Small Heath. Many night shift workers that night had stayed at their machines when the sirens sounded. When they did decide to vacate the factory floor the intensity of the raid made it impossible for them to reach the air raid shelters safely. That night they chose to shelter in the basement of the reinforced concrete factory, only one worker would be pulled out alive after being trapped for 9 hours, the rest were crushed to death when the complete factory building collapsed on top of them after two direct hits. Wartime reporting restrictions meant that the raid could not be reported by the media."

More information about the November 19th air raid on https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/32/a2116432.shtml (very interesting article!!!) No doubt these are the two bombs (one HE, one incendiary) that fell on the entrance of the New Factory (left hand side in the previous illustrations). On https://www.warwickshirerailways.com/misc/misc_bsa&singer337.htm I found this: "a major air raid on 26th August 1940 damaged the main barrel mill and 750 machine tools causing disruption to production. Serious damage and loss of life was caused during heavy air raids on 19th and 20th November 1940, destroying the machine shops in the reinforced concrete building. The damage effected 1,600 machine tools and halted rifle production for three months, after which armament production was dispersed to shadow factories.”

Also according to the same website, August 26th 1940 was another black day for BSA ("a major air raid on 26th August 1940 damaged the main barrel mill and 750 machine tools causing disruption to production.”) Could this have been the incendiary bomb that fell on the “Small Arms Factory” I wonder? (see previous illustrations).

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Re: BSA factory ledgers and the Birmingham Blitz

Research in the BSA ledgers has revealed that the motorcycle production didn’t stop or wasn’t delayed shortly after the August 26th air raid. It looks as if the factory where the guns were made had been hit on August 26th, rather than the factory where the motorcycles were assembled.

The situation was different after the November raids. When I look in the ledgers, the production of the M20 was going strong until November 19th 1940 (approximately WM20.30000). Some bikes were despatched the days after the raid, but then we have a gap until the end of December! It looks as if the production of the WM20 was halted for a month due to this air raid!

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This is the daily production before and after the November air raids:
1/11: 82
2/11: 49
3/11: none (Sunday)
4/11: 65
5/11: 85
6/11: 81
7/11: 82
8/11: 89
9/11: 39
10/11: none (Sunday)
11/11: 59
12/11: 59
13/11: 92
14/11: 87
15/11: 80
16/11: 50
17/11: none (Sunday)
18/11: 57
19/11: 67
20/11: 33 (this is just after the air raid of 19/11)
21/11: none
22/11: 20

From November 23rd 1940 onwards (this is just after the air raid of 22/11) the production was delayed until December 22nd 1940:

22/12: 6
23/12: none
24/12: 24
25/12: none (Christmas)
26/12: 49
27/12: 23
28/12: 53
29/12: none (Sunday)
30/12: 46
31/12: 58
1/1/1941: 24 (New Year)
2/1: 50
3/1: 46
4/1: 36
5/1: none (Sunday)
6/1: 50
7/1: 47
8/1: 52
9/1: 50
10/1: 57
etc...

The November air raids clearly had an effect on the production: not only had the production been delayed by a month, but the average production of 70 motorcycles per day had dropped to an average of only 35 bikes per day when the production resumed in late December 1940 - early January 1941. Also interesting to see that production continued on New Year's day!

It is unclear to me how the 1940 air raids can be responsible for the loss of the 1943 onwards factory ledgers… 😕 Any further comments or additional information would be gratefully received!

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Re: BSA factory ledgers and the Birmingham Blitz

It seems to me that the factory ledgers were useful to insure a BSA motorcycle went through the factory and received the correct spec and colour scheme for the end customer, by 1943 there was only one spec and one customer, the ministry of supply, so the ledgers had no real purpose and were just a pointless drain on manpower, I assume they weren't lost, more not bothered with.

But this doesn't appear to be the case with other makers?

Rob

email (option): robmiller11(a)yahoo.co.uk

Re: BSA factory ledgers and the Birmingham Blitz

Wonderful research and analysis, Jan. The letter confirms that by 1971, BSA had clearly lost track of the interface 'twixt arse and elbow, as far as wartime production was concerned. We can't therefore blame the closure of Small Heath and the removal of records at that time.

Someone at some point decided not to retain, but why then not dump the earlier stuff too ? Were there still a few overseas customers in the earlier records ?

We have a similar but more accute problem with the Norton records. Folklore has all the Bracebridge Street ledgers being dragged out of a skip at Andover. Considering AMC's attitude to Norton, it's a wonder that they even got that far...but as per BSA, the pre-war records were preserved more or less in their entirety, although with discrepancies in engine and frame book retention.

It may be worth bearing in mind that factory ledgers show despatch rather than production..and the Despatch Department must have been where the ledgers were held. These books are not a summary of the Tally Cards, but of when the bikes were put on the dropsides or the goods wagons. Was the bomb damage in November to the production facilities, or the Despatch Department ? I suspect production, or they would have found another way to despatch. It may just have been one or two components that held things up...

Re: BSA factory ledgers and the Birmingham Blitz

My neighbour worked at BSA around this time, as has spoke about one bomb that was dropped that took out a few floors, and killed a few workers.
He was called up and served in the RAF Regiment on AA guns, still around at 101 and a 1/2.

Dave

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